I naturally considered getting a picture on the westbound leg. I was now on the wrong side of the train and knew, from the Jefferson Memorial attempt, that cross-car shooting was not likely to work out. As we approached the spot, but long before we got there, I headed to the cafe car. Every seat on the north side of the car was filled. I sipped ginger ale in a seat on the car's other side as I waited for a north side seat to open. There wasn't even a hint of a seat opening as we moved nearer and nearer to the town of Crozet. I finished the ginger ale and moved to a between car platform. I'd no more than stepped to the window when the train began slowing. It was soon stopped at a spot I later determined to be about a hundred yards for the target pizza parlor. I soon learned (I had to move so the conductor could reach the handset to make the announcement.) that we were waiting for an eastbound train to pass before continuing on a single track segment. The stop was about ten minutes long and I almost talked myself into just heading to my seat as the time slowly ticked by. But it was definitely one of those "Well, you've come this far..." moments and I stuck it out.

I think we were somewhere around Charleston, West Virginia, when they were told they would be getting off the train in Ashland, Kentucky, rather than Cincinnati. The change would get them home sooner. About 50 of the approximately 60 passengers in the car were students. They were now all awake and they were soon all on their phones. What happened next was both a little eerie and a little comforting.

Until now, the phones had been used to watch videos, listen to music, or communicate directly with persons both on and off the train. In a fairly short amount of time, it became apparent that every student was following or feeding the same Facebook thread. The thread obviously contained things that were incredibly funny to sleepy high school art students on a train in the middle of the night. It took a little while to spread but within minutes the entire car was filled with synchronized laughter. Ah, the kids these days.